This family took us in, hungry, tired, near hypothermia at nearly 15,000 feet elevation in Tibetan Sichuan, China. We are still thankful. Read the rest of this article…
So sad to hear of the crowd disaster and all the deaths in Cambodia. In our three weeks or so in the country we found the people to be hard working, cheerful and generally happy despite sometimes difficult living conditions. Like most Southeast Asians, they love their festivals, and the Water Festival is most beloved. This is an unusual occurrence and should not deter anyone from visiting this wonderful country. We’d go back in a minute. เทศกาลน้ำ Read the rest of this article…
I do have an ear wax removal method you can do yourself. Before you shower, fill one ear with vegetable oil and let it soak by lying on your side for five minutes, or more if you can stand it. Absorb the oil with a paper towel when you stand. Shower with a moderately strong stream of warm water into that ear. After a couple of minutes, turn your ear to the bottom of the shower, jump on your right leg and bang your head on the opposite side, gently. Read the rest of this article…
This is a very old speech. A speech by one of our founding fathers. We hear a lot about these men in recent years. Few of the people evoke their greatness have ever read their writings, know their opinions. The short excerpt from Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural address is just a sample. Follow the link to read the entire address, and please, before you invoke these brave, intelligent men, read their words, don’t use them to divide us. Read the rest of this article…
Claire snared a press invitations to the official opening of Dr. Andrew Weil’s Integrative Wellness Program at the posh spa Miraval in Tucson. We met Dr. Weil and had a tour of the facility with resident physician, Dr. Jim Nicolai and his nurse Sheryl Brooks. The idea is to combine the integrative medicine concepts of Dr. Weil with the exercise, stress and relaxation activities of Miraval to plot an optimal lifestyle and wellness path for clients. Read the rest of this article…
Recently Claire and I were lucky enough to catch a hike guided by the park paleontologist and an interpretive ranger. The short, two mile or so, hike took us away from the road and interpretive signs and into the washes and flats where dinosaurs died 225 million years ago in the late Triassic Period. We found pieces of bone and Claire even found an intact tooth. The stark landscape adds to the mystery and amazement of the realization that you are holding a thing, that was once part of a living Stagonolepis so long ago. Nothing like science to put one’s lifespan into perspective. Read the rest of this article…
Mount Mazama, once over 12,000 feet in elevation, went through a half-million years of alternating eruptions and quietude. Between seven and eight thousand years ago, Mount Mazama erupted violently numerous times, covering eight states and three Canadian provinces with six inches of ash. These eruptions produced 150 times the ash as the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980. Read the rest of this article…
Finally we waved and pushed off, our 26 inch prayer wheels spinning out thousands of goodwill messages up his mountain; but I think we might have missed the point. The farmer and his wife live Shangri-la, not just in it, but they are Shangri-la. They are poor, but well fed, and the circle of their days allows for a break when tired, a visit with passing strangers, the rhythm of weeding, or wall building when they feel like it, and the song of bird and stream as accompaniment to it all. Read the rest of this article…